India’s external intelligence service is a feared foe in its neighborhood: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal have all accused it of political meddling, wiretapping, and involvement with outlawed groups that have perpetrated acts of violence.
RAW Destabilized South Asia
Indian RAW has been directly involved in eavesdropping and intercepting telecommunications at major military bases, military headquarters, secretaries and ministries of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Nepal.
Obsessed with dominance across South Asia, India is using its intelligence agency, RAW, to orchestrate unrest in neighboring countries.
According to Kashmir Media Service, India and its RAW have left behind a bloody legacy—fueling civil war in Sri Lanka, political turmoil in Bangladesh, and sustaining a military dictatorship in Myanmar.
India has been training the LTTE in Sri Lanka, supporting insurgencies in Myanmar and manipulating Bangladesh’s politics through RAW’s covert operations.
In Sri Lanka, RAW’s involvement extended beyond the LTTE, where India is responsible for decades of bloodshed, including alleged links to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, to install a pro-India regime.
Killings of Sikh diaspora
Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation that Indian government agents were involved in the June killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb has thrust Delhi’s secretive Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) into the global spotlight.
Australia secretly expelled Indian RAW agents from Canberra who were allegedly involved in political meddling and the attempted murder of the Sikh diaspora community in Australia.
A day later, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) published another report, saying a “nest” of Indian spies was uncovered and expelled from the country for trying to steal defence secrets and monitor expatriate communities in 2020.
So, is India’s spy agency increasingly targeting dissidents abroad?
In November, US authorities said an Indian government official had directed an unsuccessful plot to murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the US and Canada.
Sikhs for Justice is part of a decades-old movement pushing for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan, which mostly incorporates the Indian state of Punjab. While the movement at its peak saw the killings of thousands of Sikhs and Indian security personnel in the 1980s, it largely lost momentum in India, even though it retains influence among some Sikh diaspora groups in the US, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.
In its report, The Washington Post said Vikram Yadav, an Indian RAW official, ordered Pannun’s killing around the same time that Modi visited the White House in a high-profile tour as the two nations build closer ties in the face of shared concerns about China’s growing power.
According to the indictment, on June 20, 2023, two days before Modi spoke at the White House, Yadav emailed Nikhil Gupta, an Indian man hired for the killing, that Pannun’s assassination was a “priority now”. But Gupta turned out to be an informer, working with US federal agencies, and that is how the plot was foiled.
Pannun is the general counsel of Sikhs for Justice, a group that India labelled an “unlawful association” in 2019, citing its involvement in extremist activities. In 2020, India listed Pannun as an “individual terrorist”.
India angrily denied the allegations and demanded that Canada – which expelled RAW’s station chief – furnish evidence. Ottawa said it shared proof with allies, but will not release it publicly.
Reuters spoke to four retired and two serving Indian security and intelligence officials familiar with RAW who said the agency was galvanised to play a more assertive international role after the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The Washington Post report added that the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer was also involved in the assassination of a Sikh activist last June in Canada. The RAW is India’s external intelligence agency.
Four officials said that RAW gradually expanded its reach in Western nations after 2008. One current official cited India’s failure to secure the extradition of a U.S. citizen convicted of involvement in the Mumbai attack as a key motivation for RAW to increase its sway in the West.
While in its immediate neighborhood, RAW has advanced signal and technical intelligence capabilities; in the West, the agency remains largely dependent on human intelligence for its operations, according to one serving and one former official.
RAW, like other arms of India’s national security apparatus, has been emboldened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has bolstered India’s defense capabilities since his 2014 election and built a strongman image, five of the officials said.
More than 100 people are dead after a powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar on Friday, according to authorities who say that number is likely to rise.
Modi’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
RAW Chief Ravi Sinha, the only serving official publicly affiliated with the agency, did not return messages seeking comment. Sinha reports to Modi’s office through the powerful National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who also did not return a request for comment.
All six officials denied that RAW engages in targeted killings, noting that the agency has no mandate for such operations.
Fallout from the Vancouver incident has also raised concerns that RAW will come under greater global monitoring, Indian intelligence officials and analysts said.
“The current developments have undoubtedly increased global curiosity about RAW,” said Dheeraj Paramesha Chaya, an expert on Indian intelligence at Britain’s Hull University. He said that greater Western scrutiny of RAW’s activities might also bring a closer understanding of Delhi’s security concerns.
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